Why The Globally Recognized Use Promo Products To Increase Revenue

Increasing revenue streams tops the list of priorities for any business or organization. In order to accomplish this goal, there must be consistent engagement with your customers, prospects and loyal fans. Without this engagement, it will be difficult to grow and claim your spot in your industry’s marketplace. The question then becomes, “how do brands and businesses create this type of engagement?” Some of the globally recognized brands are spending millions of dollars on one marketing tactic that instantly creates customer engagement. Creating promotional products.

In case you were wondering who the Top 100 companies spending in the millions every year on developing creative and innovative promotional products that create a deep and meaningful connections with customers, here it is:

Promotional Products Spending Rank

RankCompanyPromotional Products Spending (in millions)

Rank Company Spending on Promo Products

1 Pfizer 85.7

2 General Motors Corp. 80.8

3 AT&T Corp. 58.5

4 PepsiCo 52.6

5 Procter & Gamble Co. 52.2

6 Sears, Roebuck & Co. 45.2

7 IBM Corp. 45.1

8 Intel Corp. 44.7

9 Philip Morris Cos. 44.0

10 J.C. Penney Co. 39.8

11 Verizon Communications39.4

12 Walt Disney Co. 39.1

13 SBC Communications 37.0

14 Daimler/Chrysler 36.0

15 Diageo 35.9

16 Hewlett-Packard Co. 35.1

17 Bristol Myers Squibb 34.3

18 McDonald’s Corp. 34.0

19 WorldCom 33.2

20 Ford Motor Co. 32.8

21 Viacom 31.9

22 U.S. Government 29.9

23 Sara Lee Corp. 29.6

24 L’Oreal 26.9

25 Sprint Corp. 26.4

26 Bayer 26.3

27 Anheuser-Busch Cos. 26.1

28 Target Corp. 26.1

29 Coca-Cola Co. 26.0

30 Time Warner 24.0

31 Nike 23.6

32 Cendant Corp. 22.5

33 Novartis 21.8

34 Toyota Motor Corp. 20.5

35 Estee Lauder Cos. 20.4

36 Johnson & Johnson 20.1

37 Merck & Co. 19.4

38 Nestlé 19.3

39 Sony Corp. 18.5

40 General Electric Co. 18.4

41 American Home Products Corp.17.7

42 Mars Inc. 17.7

43 Eastman Kodak Co. 17.6

44 Microsoft Corp. 17.5

45 Tricon Global 17.2

46 Kroger Co. 17.1

47 Federated Department. Stores17.1

48 ConAgra 16.7

49 Gillette Co. 16.5

50 SmithKline Beecham 16.0

51 Schering-Plough Corp. 16.0

52 Home Depot 15.9

53 Unilever 15.9

54 GAP Inc. 15.8

55 News Corp. 15.7

56 Wal-Mart Stores 15.4

57 Honda Motor Co. 15.0

58 Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter & Co.14.8

59 Volkswagen 14.5

60 Gateway 13.6

61 General Mills 13.4

62 Nissan Motor Corp. 13.2

63 Mattel 13.1

64 Glaxo Wellcome 12.8

65 Adolph Coors Co. 12.8

66 Reckitt Benckiser 12.6

67 Quaker Oats Co. 12.5

68 Seagram Co. 12.4

69 Sherwin-Williams Co. 12.1

70 Hershey Foods Corp. 11.8

71 AutoNation 11.7

72 Clorox Co. 11.5

73 Dell Computer Corp. 11.5

74 Visa International 11.0

75 U.S. Dairy Producers 10.8

76 S.C. Johnson & Son 10.7

77 Colgate-Palmolive Co. 10.6

78 Starwood Hotels & Resorts10.5

79 American Express Co. 10.3

80 May Dept. Stores Co. 10.2

81 Circuit City Stores 10.1

82 Ralston Purina Co. 9.6

83 Kmart Corp. 9.6

84 Revlon 9.3

85 Alltel Corp. 9.2

86 Charles Schwab & Co. 8.9

87 Pharmacia Corp. 8.8

88 Office Depot 8.7

89 BellSouth Corp. 8.5

90 Wendy’s International 8.4

91 Campbell Soup Co. 8.3

92 Kellogg Co. 8.3

93 Compaq Computer Corp. 8.2

94 R.J. Reynolds Tobacco 8.1

95 Abbott Laboratories 7.6

96 Cadbury Schweppes 7.6

97 Albertson’s 7.3

98 Limited 6.9

99 Best Buy Co. 6.7

100 Berkshire Hathaway 5.9

TOTAL $ 2,108.3

Your business does not need to spend the kinds of money like the brands on this list do to create this engagement with customers and prospects. Promotional products, if created correctly, are extremely cost effective and have a far better reach and garner more impressions than the traditional forms of marketing. The messages on these products cannot be turned off like a T.V. or radio ad. They are not ignored at the same rate. They do not interrupt people, in a marketing sense. People want these products. They wait in lines at trade show booths for these products. Jump over people at sporting events for a free branded apparel t-shirt. In today’s crowded marketplace, promotional products are the marketing tactic to rise above the noise and achieve top of mind awareness with consumers.

Why else would the companies on this list spend millions of dollars on these promotional products? It is not because they have to. It is because these globally recognized brands understand the value of creating consistent engagement with consumers in order to increase the bottom line and continually have streams of revenue to fund growth.